How to make the most of social media advertising
Social media advertising is a must for businesses and a natural place to reach new potential customers. Building up clientele from social media will create the foundation for long-lasting relationships and will help customers build trust with your brand.
For the travel and hospitality sector, the rise of the internet and the increased popularity of social media platforms has transformed tourism marketing with potential customers using social media to make purchasing decisions.
With social media being at the forefront of advertising, it is important to choose the right social media platform for your business. The top platforms can alter based on your target audience and objectives, but Facebook, Instagram and Twitter provide great opportunities for businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector.
At Experience West Sussex, we’re committed to helping businesses across West Sussex thrive each month. In this expert guide we share our top tips with help from some of our brilliant West Sussex based businesses and share with you the ways that social media advertising can benefit you and your business.
“To connect with your target audience, it is best to humanise your brand. When advertising on social, make your business’ adverts seem friendly and relatable and promote exclusive offers to draw in customers. If done well, social media adverts will reach your target audience in the most effective way.”
– Benjamin O’Brien, Out of Bounds
Many brands use paid social adverts to help increase their online visibility, giving users connected, on-the-go access to your business. Higher awareness of your brand leads to more purchases and recognition, especially if you create compelling offers to entice users to click on your adverts.
Regardless of which platform you choose to advertise with, it’s important that the messaging, tone of voice and style is consistent with your wider brand and website. As your advert is shown to potential new customers, their recognition with your brand will help to build trust and encourage people to take the next step in the buying process.
“Don’t run the same adverts for different types of social media. Taylor each advert to your target audience, with a clear call to action aimed directly at them. Always include eye-catching images and keep text to minimum.”
– Lucy Wood, Marketing at Stansted Park
Facebook now has more than 2.23 billion active monthly users, which makes it the most widely used social media platform across the globe[1]. With Facebook providing several ways to display your ads, it’s important to take the time to choose an option that will resonate with your potential new customers and visitors. Options range from videos, photographs, carousels, boosted events and offers. If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at Facebook’s effective advert formats.
There are now more than 50 million small businesses using ‘Facebook Pages’ to connect with their customers[2]. So, as well as placing your ads in between organic posts, creating a Facebook Page will engage users with your brand activity and drive them to your website. This will tailor your ads to your audiences and provide them with different ways to engage with your business.
“’Shop now’ features are a great way to incorporate your products on Instagram. Entice users with promotional offers that can connect them directly to your website, making it easier for them to browse your site and purchase products.”
– Mardi Roberts, Marketing and Communications Director at Ridgeview
Instagram is the most visual of the social media platforms and offers great opportunities to connect with your audiences. Like Facebook, Instagram has a variety of ways to advertise including story adverts, which are seen to be highly popular with businesses. With a full screen advert appearing between stories, they can reach 300 million Instagram views per day[3].
The photo or video advert you choose will look like a regular Instagram post, but will say that it is sponsored. Depending on your marketing objective, choose a type of advert that will benefit your business, from encouraging sign-ups to increasing likes to your page.
Key considerations
Grow your business and attract new visitors by taking the time to understand social media advertising. It can be daunting to begin with but if you take one channel at a time, you’ll quickly get the hang of it.
Researching your audiences and understanding their social preferences will help to strategise your paid social adverts. Depending on your marketing strategy, make sure you have a clear end goal that is measurable, where you can collate your data. Also, look at partnering with other businesses and organisations like Experience West Sussex, to promote your business on their social media platforms which will help share your message to new audiences.
At Experience West Sussex, we are ready to help support your business and are happy to provide advice. All you need to do is get in touch with us by emailing getinvolved@experiencewestsussex.com